I guess I'm following suit with the user name thread title phenomena. I'm not much of a "modder" these days(not sure the term ever really applied, and even less sure it does now). I'm more of a "map maker" now than anything. And I'm not sure how dedicated to that pursuit I am either. Though I am committed to finishing my first map, or die trying.

But I have been considering "converting"(term loosely applied) my ST "mods"(term loosely applied) to STMR. Some of which have already been "converted" by others. "Twilight Nights" is now being called "White Nights"(using basically the same methods to achieve the effects). And "Fog Free Days" is now "No Fog"(though not at all using the same method for creation of the effect). So I don't have any interest in revisiting those. I've found that "Mud Lite & Mud Ultra" don't translate(directly convert) to STMR very well. The mud physics have apparently changed a bit. And there are other mud mods out there that do a well enough job at giving you some mud consistency variety. So I'm abandoning those as well for that reason. Plus I think the mud is basically perfect now without modding. I have no desire to change it at all.

So that really only leaves "Realistic Sun Effects" for (re)consideration at this point. Which I've toyed around with a little in STMR. And don't really like how it looks(in most cases). As with the mud, the lighting/shadowing in the game pleases me as it is. Plus it's not really "realistic" for every scenario to be found in the game. What it really amounts to is only a reasonably accurate summer sun simulation. As far as correcting the behavior of the Sun itself. Which is about as unrealistic as it can possibly be in the game...still. If you observe it(and good luck with that as it's almost impossible to do with the camera in most instances) you'll see(or probably won't be able to) that, by default, the Sun does not actually rise or set relative to the viewable horizon. It's, basically, permanently positioned around 45° above the horizon, in the due westerly direction. All day and all night. It gets brighter in the morning, darker in the evening, and goes totally dark at night. But never actually moves across the sky(at least not in a realistic way, though I think it might move a little, but not very much, if at all, it's hard to tell). Only appearing to rise and set through lighting and shadowing angles(and/or brightness changes) that change irrespective to its position in the sky(or for the most part as so). Which is a fairly accurate representation in other respects, except that it still appears to rise and set in the west(as in ST). And that it only depicts a fall/winter/spring-type sunlight scenario(also as in ST). As in never appearing to be more or less directly overhead, as it would in summer months(in many parts of the world). I should also mention that none of the "Summer" mods you'll find address this inaccuracy with the Sun's actual movement(or lack thereof). As in, as yet, nobody has bothered to use my methodology for correcting it(or can't figure out how/why they should).

So here it is. As Realistic Summer Sun Effectsv1.0v1.1v1.2v1.3.Realistic Summer Sun Effects v1.3 has been DISCONTINUED. Please see following post to download Realistic Summer Sun Effects FINAL 3.

Install the files in the Media.zip folder under classes\daytimes. Pretty sure that's a requirement(as opposed to other mod install methods, not 100% sure on that though so YMMV). It's not a requirement as it turns out. Installing in your non-zip Media folder also works. Default daytimes files are provided to restore if you need/want to. It's not a mod for every map, or everybody. You might like it or you might not. I've made the corrections needed for the Sun to rise and set(as well as doing so in the East and West respectively). It will now travel below the horizon in the evening, stay below it at night, rise above it in the morning, and be directly overhead during the day. I've also set all the days to sunny w/ blue sky, and removed the fog from all days and daytime states(day to night, night, night to day incl.). Fog removal can cause issues with terrain pop in at longer viewing distances(live with it or don't). Also note that lighting and shadowing angles of/from static objects will still show incorrectly by comparison(most of the time anyway). Meaning if it's part of the terrain it will still be lit as though the Sun were ~45° above the western horizon during the day. Since that's where Pavel(in his infinite wisdom) thinks the Sun should be all day, every day, and all night, every night...FFS. Anyway, there's nothing I can do about that(again...live with it or don't...your choice).

Enjoy!

P.S., Map coming soon eventually too.

P.P.S, I'll upload things elsewhere eventually too. Just not sure where yet...

P.P.P.S, If you want to apply this mod's Sun behavior corrections to another "Summer" mod(or to the default daytimestates) you can do so by inserting my SunDir values in the daytimestates xmls. Which are as follows:

EDIT 4: I was right about the Sun moving a little bit by default. It moves between ~35° and ~45° above the western horizon. Upwards towards ~45° in the morning, and downwards towards ~35° in the evening.

Here's some screenshots to demonstrate most of it. If you're having trouble visualizing.

Default "Not Very Realistic Sunrise". Notice time of day, facing West, and the Sun's angle above the horizon(which is at its lowest point, ~35° above the horizon, where it suddenly appears and begins to rise).
Modified "Very Realistic Sunrise". Notice times of day, facing East, and the Sun's angles above the horizon.

Default daytime Sun effects. Notice time of day, and lighting and shading angles, as though the Sun is ~45° above the western horizon.

Modified daytime "Realistic Summer Sun" effects. Notice time of day, and lighting and shading angles, as though the Sun is directly overhead.

Default "Not Very Realistic Sunset". Notice time of day, facing West, and angle above the horizon(which is near its lowest point, ~35° above the horizon, where it suddenly stops setting and slowly disappears).

Realistic Summer Sun Effects just got a major overhaul. Starting with removing the clouds from the sky, and clearing up the air by removing the fog mask. Those put the finishing touches on RSSE for the FINAL version of that.

Realistic Summer Sun Effects FINAL 3EDIT(2/19/18): Updated to FINAL 3 because I forgot to change the VignetteFlareColor and Ambient NegY brightness multiplier of day_to_night to match the updated day_to_night. Functionality of the mod is otherwise unchanged.

But I've also taken the concept to a whole new level with MAJOR improvements on top of those. And, as a result, turned it into a new mod entirely(which I've named more appropriately too). Which goes a little something like this. After finalizing RSSE, I got to work on perfecting the blue sky. Which took forever. With seemingly endless color and brightness adjustments to the point that I thought I'd go mad. I stuck with it though. And I'm extremely pleased with how it turned out. But I didn't stop there either. I went all the way full tilt ULTIMATE SUMMER with it by increasing the brightness of the Sun, and adding a bit more ambient light, during the day. It's a whole new world now! Screenshots don't do it justice(though I'll probably throw a few in later for good measure). It really needs to be played to be seen and believed. So I hope you'll be inspired to do so.

Introducing the ALL NEW, ULTRA REAL, ULTRA BRIGHT, AND ULTRA SUMMERY, SUNSHINE LIKE YOU'VE NEVER SEEN IT BEFORE MOD...

ULTIMATE Summer Mod FINAL 2EDIT(2/27/18): Updated to FINAL 2. Because, frankly, FINAL sucked the big one. The brightness was just plain crappy/terrible/garbage. And I was right about the VignetteFlareColor needing removed too. So I got rid of that again, and worked on the brightness quite a bit more to try and get it as universally applicable as possible. It should look much better now on a wider variety of maps/levels. Though I can't say for sure I won't change my mind about that and update it to change the brightness again in the future. Day_to_night and night_to_day could use a lot of work too. But I don't know if I can be bothered to actually do any of that stuff. Anyway...putting the FINAL tag on it was probably obviously a little premature. But whatever. What's done is done. I just wish I could say this mod was done...for sure.

Obligatory screenshots

Sorry for all the CAPS(pretty excited over this one...as you can tell).

I'm offering both so you can fall back on RSSE if USM is "too much" Sun for your tastes. On that note, I want to tell you how to tone down the brightness of the Sun...if you want to. I think it's perfect. But opinions vary.

So...if the Sun's a little "too shiny" for ya, here's how you adjust it:

Open the day xml files(day_1, day_2, day_3) in the daytimes folder(with notepad/NP++). Find the SunColor lines. After the g(247; 225; 178) is the brightness multiplier. I've set it to x 4.72. Just type in a lower number after the x and save it. Do that for all 3 days. Simple as that!

EDIT: Here's the deal with the brightness. It's going to depend on what looks "right" to you. But, also, what looks "right" on one map, might not look "right" on another. So you might end up wanting to change the brightness settings quite often. There really is no "perfect" setting. I just tried to set the brightness, of the Sun specifically, so it wasn't way too bright. I went with more of a MAX brightness with that. I wouldn't recommend going any higher than x 6.0 with it. But, in reality, anywhere between x 4.0 and x 6.0 will give you a good bump in Sun brightness over default(which was x 2.0).

You should also strongly consider adjusting the brightness of the ambient light, depending on what/when/where it looks "right" to you. I've found increasing it to more, or decreasing it to less, than NegY x 4.01, MidY x 4.41, PosY x 4.41 can look alright in certain circumstances. So long as you don't mind the color of sky looking a little pale(if ambient light brightness is increased) or a little darker(if ambient light brightness is decreased).

Anyhow, making a bunch of different versions of the mod to address every possible amount of brightness, or for every possible scenario, is a little impractical(if not impossible). So I won't be doing that. If you don't like it as is, you're going to need to change it by yourself.

PS, install instructions are in the README.txt.

Now I need to figure out what to do with the HUD color. White's just not going to cut it. Gets way too washed out sometimes. Anybody know how to change that? Probably not. Oh well...I'll find it...eventually.

is there a way to increase render distance ? as you can see the trees dissapearing ... ?

I can't seem to find a way to. I tried adding the old ST "FarStart" and "FarRange" Dof values to the daytimes xmls(which have been removed in STMR). It didn't appear to do anything. Not sure if it ever did as far as the terrain pop in at long viewing distance problem with less or no fog. I thought I'd read that it did, so I figured I'd give it a try. At present, the only "solution" I'm aware of is to keep(or add back in this case) the fog, but adjust its Density and StartDist values. Until it's just barely dense enough, and starts close enough, to hide the terrain pop in. I heard @WrenchinMonkey mention that he'd done so. So maybe he could tell you exactly how, if you're interested in that option.

Hint: You might try using the Fog Density and StartDist values from the old ST "less fog & increased view distance" mod(search and ye shall find). They seem to work alright. Or at least they might be a good starting point. I didn't like the look of it when I tried them. I either want no fog, or fog as it is by default. Somewhere in between just doesn't appeal to me. The occasional terrain pop in, in trade for greater visual clarity, doesn't bug me very much. Seems like a fair enough trade to me. "Can't win 'em all".

BTW, I'd tried the same type of trick by adding the missing AmbientUI values, to change the HUD color. That didn't work either. I believe it can be removed entirely(if seeing is believing). So I can figure out how to do that it might be a step in the right direction to changing the color. I guess I'll be asking about that here. If I can't figure it out on my own. Wish me luck!

Howdy y'all! Back again with another new mod for ya. I recently changed my mind about converting one of my old ST mods to STMR. I decided to "come full circle", as it was my first "mod", and revisit Twilight Nights. I wanted to see if I could offer something "better" than the copy-cat "White Nights" mod currently available. And that's precisely what I've gone and done.

If you're not familiar with these mods, there's not much explaining that needs to be done. The names pretty much say it all. Nights that aren't so dark, making it much easier to see what you're doing. And with Twilight Nights Revisited installed you'll be experiencing night like you've never seen it in ST or STMR! I've made 3 different versions as you'll soon see. And I've upped the game(pardon the pun) by making all versions brighter and more spectacular than any before. As well as added a Moon! I say "a" because it's not really "the" Moon, it's the Sun in disguise. But it's pretty cool none-the-less. Though I could only work it into the Standard version unfortunately.

The Standard version, besides sporting a Moon in the night sky, is for adding brighter nights to the default days(w/ fog, w/o realistic summer Sun effects, w/o cloudless blue sky). And it looks something like this.

The other 2 versions are for installing with Realistic Summer Sun Effects FINAL 3 or ULTIMATE Summer Mod FINAL 2. So you can also have brighter nights if you're using either of those mods too. They won't have a Moon. But both are fog free and, therefore, much clearer than the Standard version. And brightness is as close to the same as I could get it for all 3 versions(the Moon doesn't really add much, if any, brightness, it just looks cool). And they look like this.

Install instructions and more info are in the README. As with RSSE and USM brightness is adjustable if required, and instructions on how do so are also in the README.

PS, If you haven't noticed already, I had to update RSSE and USM. To FINAL 3 and FINAL 2 respectively. Links are above and in my previous post(as well as the explanations of what and why).

PPS, There's one other important thing that I've forgotten to say. Any mod I make and upload for public use is provided with no terms, stipulations, or usage conditions implied. You are free to do with the mod as you wish. If you redistribute it, I would appreciate, but do not require, that you give me credit as the author. If you alter it in any way before redistributing it, giving me credit as the original author would be nice, but is also not required. I don't believe in giving something to someone and then demanding that they do, or not do, certain things with it. It was a gift to you. It is no longer mine. It is yours. I'll do what I like with mine. You do what you like with yours.

I got bit by the "mod bug" again. And I just can't seem to stop doing it. It's a sickness I tell ya. And it's making a liar out of me too(see first post of this thread).

Sooo...another old ST mod of mine is back from the dead. Pitch Black Nights. Redubbed Realistically Dark Nights for STMR. I don't anticipate there being a huge demand for it. But I have heard it mentioned a time or 2 that night wasn't dark enough. It doesn't "look realistic". "It's bright enough to see/drive without headlights(and turning them on just causes glare that makes seeing/driving more difficult)". Well...you can do something about the excessive brightness of night. Or...I can do it for you I suppose. BTW, I agree. It is too bright. For what it is anyway. It looks like there's a full Moon shining in the sky. But there isn't. So I fixed that. And made it so nights without a Moon in the sky are as dark as they should be. Since I can't won't make all nights have a Moon in the Sky. It would cause chaos with my RSSE and USM mods.

Install instructions, brightness adjustment procedure explanation, and default files for restoration are provided in the download.

Default Dark.

Realistically Dark.

Default Dark With Moon.

And that's not all. I've got one more here too. Another little mini-mod I'm calling the MudRunner Mud Brown GUI Mod. I got inspired by @8up-local when I saw his color change of the main menu "RUNNER" emblem. So I did the same. And decided to change the colors of as many of the other GUI elements as I could to match. Creating a "mud brown theme" for the GUIs. I think it turned out rather nicely. You can try it out if you want. As with all of my mods, there's default files provided to undo it if you don't like it.

MudRunner Mud Brown GUI Mod v1.2EDIT(3/7/18): Updated to v1.2. Used a lighter shade of brown for some panels, sliders, and buttons to increase visibility. Added "+" and "-" signs to the hollow selector buttons...for novelty.

Install instructions and default files for restoration are provided in the download.

1.Colored Gauge Needles v1.0. Not much to say about it. Just some different color options for the gauge needles on the dashboard. Install instructions and default file for restoration provided in the download.

2.Perfect Steel Winch Line v1.0. I made my own steel winch line mod because I wasn't satisfied with the ones currently available. I wanted something more realistic looking. More detailed texture, realistic weathered steel color(not rusty), as seemless as possible, and fixed so it doesn't look too "untwisted" during extra-long pulls(up to 40m), and too "twisted" during short pulls. So I made a steel cable texture file that fits those requirements fairly nicely. And I think it looks a lot better than most other mods of the sort. Install instructions and default file for restoration provided in the download.

Examples of the bad(looks too "untwisted" during long pulls, poor detail, not great color, not very seemless).

Better than most mods of the sort by including every default truck/vehicle in the game to date(incl. Ridge DLC, Valley DLC, and Certified Workshop Mods), and adding my personal touches(no completion stars, all wheels/axles connected to handbrake). Install instructions and default files for restoration provided in the download.